Genna Black’s first impression of The Game Loft in Belfast left her wary.

“I’d seen a couple of people with weird-colored hair coming out,” recalled the 14-year-old from Belfast.

But a friend encouraged her to visit the downtown clubhouse anyway, and the freshman at Belfast Area High School has become a regular visitor.

“I had a lot of fun,” she said of her first visit, in which she joined a role-playing card game.

Like most great ideas, the Loft seems obvious now, nine years after it was established as a nonprofit spinoff of Ray and Patricia Estabrook’s All About Games store, which sells board, card and role-playing games.

When teens began hanging out at All About Games to play, the Estabrooks hit on the idea of establishing a separate nonprofit entity to create a clubhouse environment for the bright, creative but sometimes introverted and withdrawn preteens, teens and young adults who enjoy playing fantasy games such as Dungeons & Dragons.

Those young people, ranging in ages from 8 to 20, often are not big hits on the school scene and can be viewed as loners by others their own ages. But put them together in a relaxed, comfortable loft, with dozens of games handy, and they joke, talk, challenge and support one another, the Estabrooks said.

The Loft, which depends on adult volunteers and workers, is thriving since its reorganization late last year. On any given weekday afternoon or weekend, it provides a vibrant and stimulating environment for those who choose to drop by for a few minutes, or hang out for hours. It fills an important niche, both adults and young patrons say, and at least one board member believes the program is worth replicating in other communities.

The Loft operates on an annual budget of about $55,000, funded with state substance abuse prevention grants, donations from area towns, the Golden Rule Foundation, private donations and through other fundraising efforts.

Rules are posted prominently on a door: no physical contact, no swearing, clean your mess, no throwing objects, return games and pieces, respect one another and have fun.

If a rule is broken, the guilty party is banned for the day.

The second- and third-floor facility has two small rooms for games and a larger living room where kids relax. A plate of brownies, prepared in the adjacent kitchen, sat on a coffee table one recent day.

The games themselves are a key part of the environment. No electronics or video games, or even television or music, are allowed. Adult leaders say video games might be fun, but they do not promote interaction between players.

Black remembers her first experience at the Loft, in which she acted out a character called an “elf sorcerer” for a role-playing game.

“[Card and board games] are so much better than video games,” Black said. “You can joke around with people [while playing]. You can actually talk to people.”

The Loft clientele is predominantly male, but that is changing.

“There’s a lot more guys than girls, but there’s more girls coming,” Black said.

She has become a game master, responsible for running a game called Fire Born. Other games piled high on shelves include Ace of Mythology, Cosmic Encounter, Twilight Imperium, Napoleon in Europe and Trinity Battleground.

A dry erase board lists the games being played during the week and who will lead them.

On a recent afternoon, six boys and a girl gathered around a wide table in a third-floor room playing History of the World, a game that includes a board displaying a map of the ancient world, cards and small playing pieces representing different tribal groups.

An older teen explained and ran the game for the mostly middle-school-age players, who were alternately quietly engrossed and staring at the map, then grinning and celebrating a conquest on the board.

Patricia Estabrook watched, offering players tips on how to secure a city in India and how the migration pattern shown in the game mirrors history.

“You can actually play a game and understand the forces of history,” she said.

Then she offered a word of encouragement to a player: “Don’t get discouraged, Scythians. You’re a warlike people.”

Karl Stevens, 13, of Belfast and an eighth-grader at Troy Howard Middle School already was a Dungeons & Dragons player when he learned about the Loft.

“My friends told me about it, and I kind of got stuck on it,” he said. He is in his third year of visiting and playing, usually on Tuesdays only. A bus from the middle school drops him off downtown, and his mother picks him up at 5 p.m.

Stevens said visiting the Loft helps him unwind after school.

David Hurley of Swanville, who has served on the nonprofit’s board of directors and whose son frequents the Loft, believes other communities would do well to provide the program.

Technology-driven entertainment has meant “there’s more and more ways for kids to be isolated, and football and wrestling isn’t for every kid,” Hurley said.

Those who may be inclined to hide the universal angst of being a teen behind dark trench coats and colored hair are forced to interact with peers at the Loft, he said.

“You come to play a game, but when you leave, you’re actually participating in society,” Hurley said.

“We saw the need for kids to come and play games and socialize,” Estabrook said, especially young people who were not served by other programs in the community.

“A number of them are introverted,” she continued, and the Loft succeeds in getting them out of their shells.

Black readily agreed with that observation.

“Some of the people who come here probably wouldn’t have much chance for social interaction,” she said. She mentioned one particular boy who has no friends in school.

“Here, he’s accepted,” she said.

Martin Long, 20, of Belmont started frequenting the Loft five years ago. He’s now on the board of directors.

“I’d heard about the place from a friend of mine and I thought I’d check it out,” he said.

If he wasn’t at the Loft, he would be at home, surfing the Web, Long said.

“If I didn’t come to this place, I wouldn’t have gotten a job,” because he would have indulged his reclusive nature. “This place was a big, big help for me. I’ve made some of the best friends I’ve ever had in my life here,” he said.

Sci-fi and fantasy games are his favorite, and he finds himself challenged by like-minded peers.

“The kids who come here are all pretty imaginative and smart,” Long said.

Most youth programs fall apart after about seven years, Estabrook said, and The Game Loft has survived that anniversary. Its longevity means former players are adults with children of their own.

Ross Dolan, Belfast Area High School’s valedictorian in 2006 and a freshman at George Washington University in Washington D.C., began coming to the Loft at age 12.

“I think it helped me a lot,” he said during a recent telephone interview. “It was a good way to sort of figure yourself out.”

Dolan said that while he was home from college on the Christmas break, he stopped by to tell Estabrook and others what the Loft had meant to him.

“The place has done so much for me over the years,” he said. “I don’t think I could ever repay it.”

For more information about The Game Loft, visit: www.thegameloft.org